Home Theater Pre/Pro

[Daveburt714]

Just some food for thought; a vast majority of the home entertainment system setups I see completely or mostly ignore acoustics, and I really think it's a shame. Granted, there are some issues that go along with dealing with acoustics, particularly aesthetics and the architecture of the space, but the possible improvements are really really big.

Thanks for the heads up Matt!

I don't have a dedicated media room, so I have to do the best I can with my living room...
It's not bad, ~12x16 foot rectangle, but adding acoustic treatments probably wouldn't meet my needs in the aesthetics department.

You seem to have a handle on getting the best out of audio equipment, and you've offered some good advice in the past, so if you don't mind, I have a really noobish question to ask...

I'm running 5.1 on my speakers...
With this set up, should the ones behind my couch be the "surrounds" or the "rears" (based on a 7.1 head)?
I know most current software (DVD/Blu-Ray) is based on 5.1, I have the ones behind the couch set as the surrounds.

Am I missing anything by not having rears?
Don't get me wrong... When watching movies, my system sounds daym good, but being the geek that I am (computers and audio), I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything!

Thanks,
Dave